Whoever, being an officer or employee of the United States or of any department or agency thereof, any person acting on behalf of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or agent of the Department of Justice as defined in the Antitrust Civil Process Act (15 U.S.C. 1311–1314), or being an employee of a private sector organization who is or was assigned to an agency under chapter 37 of title 5, publishes, divulges, discloses, or makes known in any manner or to any extent not authorized by law any information coming to him in the course of his employment or official duties or by reason of any examination or investigation made by, or return, report or record made to or filed with, such department or agency or officer or employee thereof, which information concerns or relates to the trade secrets, processes, operations, style of work, or apparatus, or to the identity, confidential statistical data, amount or source of any income, profits, losses, or expenditures of any person, firm, partnership, corporation, or association; or permits any income return or copy thereof or any book containing any abstract or particulars thereof to be seen or examined by any person except as provided by law; shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and shall be removed from office or employment.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
412
cases (
25 in the last 5 years), 1955–2026 · leading case:
Chrysler Corp. v. Brown, 441 U.S. 281 (1979).
Chrysler Corp. v. Brown, 441 U.S. 281 (1979).
· cites it 22× “(hereinafter Chrysler) seeks to enjoin agency disclosure on the grounds that it is inconsistent with the FOIA and 18 U. S. C. § 1905 , a criminal statute with origins in the 19th century that proscribes disclosure of certain classes of business and personal information.”
Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto Co., 467 U.S. 986 (1984).
· cites it 8× “Another statute, the Trade Secrets Act, 18 U. S. C. § 1905 , however, arguably is relevant.”
Dow Chem. Co. v. United States Ex Rel. Adm'r, 476 U.S. 227 (1986).
· cites it 4× “" [2] Assuming the Clean Air Act's explicit provisions for protecting trade secrets obtained by EPA as the result of its investigative efforts is somehow deemed inapplicable to the information obtained here, see 42 U. S. C. § 7414 (c), Dow's fear that EPA might disclose trade…”
Westchester Gen. Hosp., Inc. v. Dep't of Health, Educ. & Welfare, 464 F. Supp. 236 (M.D. Fla. 1979).
· cites it 44× “The specific federal statute which plaintiff believes forbids disclosure of its cost reports is the Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1905 . Plaintiff’s primary contention is that its cost reports are exempted from mandatory disclosure by the Freedom of Information Act (‘FOIA’), 5…”
Multi Ag Media LLC v. Dep't of Agric., 515 F.3d 1224 (D.C. Cir. 2008).
· cites it 2× “§ 7213 (making it a felony for federal or state employees willfully to disclose tax return information); 18 U.S.C. § 1905 (imposing criminal penalties on federal employees disclosing, inter alia, the "amount or source of any income, profits, losses, or expenditures of any…”
Diamond Ventures v. Barreto, Hector, 452 F.3d 892 (D.C. Cir. 2006).
· cites it 5× “7 (citing 18 U.S.C. § 1905 ), and under Exemption 4 of section 552 of the Freedom of Information Act, 6 cf.”
Cna Fin. Corp. v. Raymond J. Donovan, Sec'y of Labor, 830 F.2d 1132 (D.C. Cir. 1987).
· cites it 3× “ROBINSON, III, Circuit Judge: This reverse-Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case 1 features two important is *1134 sues: the exact scope of 18 U.S.C. § 1905 , commonly referred to as the Trade Secrets Act, 2 and its relationship to FOIA Exemptions 3 3 and 4.”
United Aeronautical Corp. v. Usaf, 80 F.4th 1017 (9th Cir. 2023).
· cites it 3× “Aero alleges that USAF has for some time violated federal procurement regulations and the Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1905 , by improperly using Aero’s intellectual property.”
R & W Flammann Gmbh v. United States, 339 F.3d 1320 (Fed. Cir. 2003).
· cites it 2× “§ 552 (2000), and the Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1905 (2000). Specifically, Flammann asserts that its unit prices fall within Exemption 4 of FOIA, which protects from disclosure “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person [that'is]…”
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